Technological Field
The present application relates generally to, inter alia, robotics systems and methods of utilizing the same. Specifically, in one aspect, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for initializing and operating a robot to travel a trained route.
Background
Presently, programming robots can often involve exhaustive coding that anticipates, or attempts to anticipate, every situation in which the robot can encounter. Not only is such an approach costly from a time, energy, and computer resource perspective, but such an approach can also limit the capabilities of the robot. For example, many robots can only be effective in controlled environments with predictable or predefined conditions. These robots may not be effective in dynamically changing environments and/or new environments for which the robot was not specifically programmed. Where robots are programmed with general capabilities, the robots may be useful in many different tasks, but may be ineffective or inefficient at any particular one of those tasks. On the flipside, robots that are programmed to perform specific tasks effectively and efficiently may be limited to those tasks and not able to perform others. Similarly, many present robots can require expert technicians or other highly skilled workers to program and operate them. This requirement can increase the time and costs of operating the robots.
These challenges are particularly salient in programming robots to travel in routes. For example, in order to program a robot to autonomously navigate a desired path from a first point to a second point, a programmer may have to program a map and also identify each point on the map to which the robot should travel, along with the order or logic in which the robot should travel to those points. That programmer may have to program the robot for each environment and input each and every route desired, along with maps of the environment. In the alternative, if the programmer programs general rules and logic for the robot to determine routes, that robot may be slow and inefficient in following any particular route. In either case, such programming can be time-consuming and also require highly skilled workers to operate the robot.
Another challenge that can occur in programming robots to travel routes is initializing the robots such that the robots can determine relatively quickly their positions in environments. Being able to make such determinations can be important for robots to accurately navigate routes by informing the robots where they are located within the environment. Conventional systems and methods of determining positions involve users and/or technicians initially programming starting locations, and/or having the robots start at the same spot every time. In some cases, these systems and methods can be time consuming to implement and/or may not have the robustness that enables robots to navigate environments in a user-friendly manner.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems and methods for programming robots to travel routes.